Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) allows high volumes of imagery to be searched efficiently by presenting images at rates of tens or hundreds of milliseconds per image. Hence, RSVP can be used to conduct a triage of high volumes of imagery. A triage generally refers to the rapid identification, sorting, and stratification of images by their likelihood of containing critical information. Images of interest, or targets, can be tagged either through the press of a button, or through neurophysiological signals associated with target detection. For example, it is possible to use an evoked response potential (ERP) in electroencephalogram (EEG) signals as a target detection cue. An ERP is a brief change in the brain's electrical potential in response to critical events in the environment.
The output of the triage process may be a prioritized list of images, with images that elicited a user response being assigned the highest priority, while those images without a user response being assigned a lower priority. Unfortunately, if the output of the triage process is prioritized solely on the basis of ERP, the triage is likely to be inefficient or inadequate. This is because the ERP is only a valid indicator of the presence or absence of a potential target, if images are processed effectively.
While RSVP can be effective when a user is attentive and appropriately fixated on the display screen, a variety of physical and cognitive states can lead to missed targets. The current approaches to RSVP ignore these physical and cognitive states.
In the intelligence community, the ability to extract useful information from the terabytes of intelligence imagery gathered every day is limited by the number of image analysts available and the slow pace of the manual triage process. Surveillance assets routinely capture information that could contribute to tactical successes, and minimize casualties among military personnel and civilians. However, the ability to use this data effectively is contingent on rapid and accurate screening of intelligence imagery. Unfortunately, with the limited number of image analysts available, and the time it takes to process each image, vast numbers of images are not examined properly.